The 75 direct sales force dedicated to boost Stryker’s (NYSE: SYK) foot and ankle business unit had a stellar year in 2012, said CEO Kevin Lobo, to a packed room at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.
The unit had a 40 percent increase in U.S. sales in the fourth quarter.
“If you think about Stryker, we were just above the ‘other’ category in the foot and ankle business a few years ago,” Lobo said. “Based on Q4 and I haven’t seen Wright Medical’s numbers yet, we are breathing down their necks.”
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The unit is a relatively new addition to Stryker’s business units. Lobo said it took a few quarters in the beginning of 2012 to “find our feet” (no pun intended), but in retrospect, it was a smart decision to create a dedicated sales team for the unit.
Now the company has been able to hire sales people away from market leaders like Wright Medical and Arthrex.
“The idea that a sport medicine sales person would come from Wright Medical and Arthrex a few years ago would have been laughable,” Lobo declared.
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